


All Tricks, No Treats

by Avirra



Series: Emergency Holiday Tales [2]
Category: Emergency!
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-10-30
Updated: 2017-10-31
Packaged: 2019-01-26 21:41:24
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 15
Words: 17,504
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12566804
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Avirra/pseuds/Avirra
Summary: The A Shift crew of Station 51 has Halloween night off, but the night doesn't go according to plan for one of the crew. Can the rest of the crew help when the police suspect the worst about him?





	1. Trick or Treating

In the locker room, the guys were moving around, half-asleep. They had a busy night, but as Marco mentioned, at least they didn't have to deal with the spate of Devil's Night arsonists that plagued their fellow firefighters in Detroit.

Even better, their shift had Halloween off this year. Johnny was going to be going with Roy and Joanne to help 'herd' Chris and Kimmy at a Halloween carnival that one of the local stores was sponsoring. Marco was going to be doing the same duty for some of his nieces and nephews. Mike was helping out at his neighborhood community center's event for the kids. Even Chet was going to be doing trick or treat duty. His next door neighbor, Beverly, had injured her foot and he had volunteered to take her four year old daughter, Tina, out on the door to door circuit.

Chet hurried home to grab some sleep because he knew how excited Tina was about trick or treating and figured he needed to be well rested to keep up with the bubbly girl. It was a good thing that he did because she was already bouncing impatiently when he arrived at their door. Tina was dressed as a miniature Halloween witch, complete with a child-sized broom.

"Very nice, Short Stuff, but what's with all the bouncing? You got ants in your pants?"

Turning around, Tina tried to see if she had actual ants on her and Chet chuckled.

"Not real ants, kiddo. That just means you're being squirmy. Hello, Bev. How's the foot today?"

"Sore and swollen. You don't know how much Tina and I appreciate you taking her out, Chet."

"Hey, you two have helped me plenty in the past. Besides, anything for my favorite munchkin."

Tina gave an indignant stomp with her foot.

"I am not a munchkin. I'm the witch."

"Silly me, I should have spotted that right away. Wicked Witch of the West?"

"Uh-huh. Got a broom and everything."

"Impressive. Hey, no turning me into a winged monkey, got it?"

As Tina giggled, Bev handed Chet his own treat bag, which earned her a raised eyebrow until she explained.

"Your bag is for Tina to dump her candy into. She has a bad habit of swinging her bag and dumping everything out of it onto the ground."

"Got it. Sounds practical. So, we're going to be covering seven blocks?"

"If that's too far, just say so, Chet."

"Naw. I can give our little witch a lift if her legs give out. I don't want her grandmother to miss seeing her in her costume."

"My mom is going to give me a call when you guys leave her house so I'll know about when you'll be getting back here. I'll have food on the table, ready and waiting."

"Bev, that's sweet, but you don't have to do that."

"And you don't have to do this."

Holding up his hands in surrender, Chet grinned again.

"My mother taught me the futility of arguing with a woman. Besides, you cook better than I do."

Laughing, Bev pulled her green-tinged daughter into a hug.

"Now, you be good for Mister Chet and do what he tells you to do. Love you."

"I'll be good. Love you, Mama."

Chet carried both bags as Tina took hold of his hand, holding her broom in her other hand as they set off for trick or treating.

Older children were flying from door to door in colorful bunches, so Chet steered clear of them to keep Tina from getting trampled by the mobs. When they reached a house, he would stay back a few paces and hand Tina her small treat bag, watching as she darted to the door, bag and broom in hand.

Tina obediently stayed right with Chet as they moved from house to house. After two blocks, it wasn't an issue because Chet started carrying her piggyback between houses.

"Just watch it with the broom there. No clonking me in the head with it."

The fourth block in their route heading toward Beverly's mother's home was not a nice looking area. There were several houses that were no longer occupied and whose yards were overgrown. The area gave Chet a creepy feeling, but he just blamed that on the shadows and the general Halloween mood. He wouldn't have written it off so quickly if he'd known that they were under observation.

The two men stayed in the shadows, studying the pair.

"Well, what do you think? It's just the two of them. The others have been traveling in groups."

"She's small enough that she won't be any trouble. And take a look at her father. He's not exactly a basketball player, is he? We should be able to take him down without drawing attention."

"Not a lot of other folks around right now. Should we –"

"Don't be so impatient. I don't see any cars following after them, do you?"

"No. Why?"

"Because they'll come back this way to go home, right? And that will be that much longer that he'll be carrying her around and that much more tired he'll be, right?"

"Right. I see what you're saying, Ralph. So, we get ready and 'greet' them when they come back?"

"Exactly. Come on. No telling how long it will be before they finish for the night. At her age, I bet her dad won't keep her up a lot longer."

* * *

*Short note on the OCs : Chet's neighbors, Beverly and Tina, are from my stories 'O is for Outdoors' and 'R is for Retribution'.


	2. Missing

****

By the time they reached the home of Tina's grandmother, Chet was definitely ready to sit down for a few minutes. Mrs. Mitchell turned out to be a pleasant woman and, as she had heard so much about Chet from her daughter, made him feel welcome, offering him coffee and a sandwich to eat before settling down to fuss over her only grand-daughter.

A half-hour later, she looked at the time and scolded herself.

"I'm sorry, Mister Kelly, I lost all track of the time and I know Beverly's making something for you all to eat. I'd offer to drive you back, but my car is at the garage."

"That's alright, Mrs. Mitchell. I appreciate the thought. Me and Short Stuff can make it back alright. Good thing for my back that's she's so light."

"Thank you again for going so far out of your way to bring her here. I'll give Beverly a call and let her know you're on your way back."

"It was my pleasure. I know how my own mom will be as soon as she gets a grand-daughter. Thanks for the sandwich and coffee, Mrs. Mitchell."

"You're welcome. I'll see you again, most likely. Be careful going home, Tina."

She gave her tired grand-daughter a hug and kiss before helping Chet get her into piggy-back position and seeing them to the door.

As he started walking, Chet tilted his head to look up at his young charge.

"I'll do the walking, but you've got to stay awake for me up there, kiddo."

"I - _yawn_ \- will."

Chet chuckled.

"That yawn made the rest lack sincerity, Short Stuff. Come on, let's get you home."

They had made it back to the abandoned house when a set of headlights suddenly turned on in front of them, blinding Chet momentarily as he heard a voice ring out from behind him.

"Put the kid down, step away from her and hand over your wallet."

If the last demand had been the only one, Chet would have thrown his wallet down without question. However, telling him to leave Tina by herself made compliance impossible. Chet still had some spots in his vision, but he knew what direction the old house was in. Shifting how he was carrying Tina with the pretense of being about to put her down, Chet held her close and whispered.

"Remember you promised to obey me. I know it will be scary, but you know that space under the house? You go under there and you don't listen to these guys no matter what they say or do."

He felt her tremble, but saw the faint nod before he turned and ran for the house – ignoring the threats and yelling behind him. The one thing he couldn't ignore was the burning pain that suddenly hit him and made him stumble. He quickly released Tina and she darted the rest of the way, her small frame allowing her to scramble into the small area quickly. A faint smile formed as he watched her disappear and then his legs refused to hold him any longer. Chet fell to the ground, disappearing himself as the long grass surrounded him.

"Idiot! Why did you shoot him? Come on, we've got to go. Someone's bound to have called the cops when they heard that shot."

"But shouldn't we -?"

"What we need to do is go."

The sound of slamming doors and screeching tires barely registered with Chet as he lost his hold on consciousness. Leaving a frightened and shivering girl still hiding under the house, too scared to move, all by herself.

The phone rang early the following morning at Roy's home. Already awake and in the process of making the morning coffee for his hosts, Johnny picked up the phone and was startled to hear a crying girl on the line.

"Easy, easy – take a deep breath. I can't understand what you're saying. Who is this?"

"This – this is Sherri."

"Sherri? Chet's little sister? Honey, it's Johnny. What's wrong? Did something happen to Chet?"

Another sob came across the line before she could speak again. Sherri and her brother hadn't been part of Chet's family for very long, but they had bonded quickly during Chet's recovery from the beating he'd taken from a gang playing with arson.

"We don't know. Chet is missing and the police came by and they said awful things about Chet that just can't' be true and Mother Kelly threw them out of our house and the policeman said he'd have me and Jackie taken away because she must be hiding Chet and Mama Kelly is crying and I don't know what to do."

Johnny was shocked. What on Earth could the police possibly think Chet had done that they'd be threatening Mrs. Kelly? Roy had heard the phone and was about to ask Johnny who was on the phone when he saw the look on Johnny's face and stayed silent.

"Sherri? I know you're upset, honey, but I need to know. What were the police saying Chet did?"

"They – they said he kidnapped his neighbor - little Tina. Her mama called the police this morning because Chet never brought her home after trick or treating."

"Okay – now listen to me, Sherri. You and I both know that Chet would never kidnap anybody, let alone Tina. You stay with Mrs. Kelly and try to get her to calm down. I'm going to call the rest of the guys. We'll find Chet and get this all straightened out, okay?"

It finally took Joanna getting on the phone to calm down Sherri. After the phone was hung up, both she and Roy looked on in disbelief at what Sherri had told Johnny. Since Roy could ride with Johnny, Joanna had Chris and Kim get ready. They were going to head to Mrs. Kelly's house to see what they could do to help there.

Meanwhile, Johnny was making calls to Mike, Marco and Cap. Everyone agreed to meet at Chet's place. The best place for them to start to look for Chet was to try and talk with his neighbor - the mother of the little girl.

* * *

*Another short OC note: Sherri and Jackie were introduced in the story 'A is also for Alone'


	3. Searching

A glance at his watch told him that it was just after nine a.m. as Johnny noted that he and Roy were the first two to reach Chet's place. As he got out of the Rover, Johnny turned to say something to Roy, but without warning, he found arms thrown around him from behind. It was Beverly, crying and hanging onto him. Which he wouldn't really have minded except it left him pinned and off-balance as he hadn't managed to get all the way out.

Seeing his partner's predicament as well as Beverly's near-frantic state, Roy made his way over quickly. He took hold of Beverly's shoulders gently, speaking soothingly to her as if she were Kim's age. He knew he was starting to get through when she loosened her death grip on Johnny and allowed Roy to pull her toward him.

"We're here to help, Beverly, but we don't have a good picture of what's going on. I know it's hard, but try to take a deep breath and tell us what happened - please?"

Johnny grabbed for his canteen that he habitually kept in the back of the Rover and offered her a swig. The water was lukewarm, but the sip seemed to help her get herself back under control. Cap's vehicle was pulling up just then - he'd picked up Mike and Marco on the way over. Together, the five men coaxed Beverly into sitting down.

It didn't take them long to figure out that they were all on the same side. Beverly was most worried about Tina, of course - but Chet was a close second. After a second drink of the lukewarm water, she managed to start talking, still a little breathlessly, but in a way that the rest of them could understand.

"The police won't listen to me. I told them about hurting my foot and how Chet volunteered to take Tina trick or treating. And it was like they refused to listen anymore. They've decided that Chet is some sort of closet pedophile and that he's run off with Tina. I talked until I was blue in the face - told them that Chet isn't at all like that and that something must have happened. They all but patted my head and started talking about getting men to watch the ways out of town. They're so convinced that Chet has done something to Tina that they aren't really looking for them."

Not a single man on A Shift believed for a second that Chet would do anything to a child, so they all shared Beverly's frustration with the police assigned to the case. Then Cap reached out to take Beverly's hand.

"If the police are looking elsewhere, we can look around here. Do you know the route that Chet was planning to take Tina on?"

"I know exactly which route. Chet was kind enough to agree to take Tina to visit my mother - she'd helped make part of Tina's witch costume and she wanted to see it on Halloween. She lives seven blocks from here."

Beverly stood so that she could point the way out.

"They were going two blocks that way, then turn and go right for three blocks and then left for the last two blocks to get to my mom's place. And I know that they got that far because Mom called me after they left so that I could get supper on the table."

Cap got the address from Beverly then started making plans.

"This will work quicker if we split up. John, you and Roy drive the route over to Beverly's mother's home - see if you see anything out of place. Marco and Mike, you start walking the route, taking a closer look. I'll stick here with Beverly in case the police come back by and have a word with them. I brought walkie-talkies - every team grab one."

"Right, Cap."

Johnny didn't say anything else until he and Roy were back in the Rover headed toward Mrs. Mitchell's home. Roy kept his gaze looking over the area as they drove.

"Man, I don't believe those cops Beverly was telling us about. I mean, even not knowing Chet, what guy who is kidnapping a kid is going to walk her seven blocks to see her grandmother and then disappear with her. And it would have had to have been on foot because Chet's car is still at his place."

"Doesn't make any sense, I have to agree with you on that, Johnny. Turn right here."

"Then three blocks before we turn left?"

"Yes and that should put us on Mrs. Mitchell's street. I wonder if the police - Johnny! Stop!"

At the change in Roy's tone, Johnny hit the brakes hard, jolting both of them. Johnny started to question Roy, but his partner was already climbing out of the Rover. Figuring Roy must have seen something, Johnny quickly maneuvered the Rover to the side of the road and parked. Getting out, Johnny saw Roy looking at something at the edge of an over-grown lawn.

"What is it, Roy?"

The first thing Roy pointed to were marks on the sidewalk that looked like someone had spun their tires there, leaving rubber behind. The next thing he pointed to made Johnny tilt his head. It looked like a bundle of dried twigs where sticking out of the grass.

"I saw that from the window. Didn't Beverly say Tina was dressed as a witch?"

"Yes, but -"

Before he said anything else, it dawned on Johnny what he was looking at - the bottom of a child-sized witch's broom. Johnny's eyes traveled from the dropped broom to the tire marks again. There was no telling how old the tire marks were, but he had a bad feeling about it. When he took a better look around the block at the lack of inhabited homes, the bad feeling got worse.

Roy was making use of the walkie-talkie.

"Cap? This is Roy. Would you ask Beverly if Tina was carrying a broom as part of her costume?"

"That's affirmative, Roy."

"Have Marco and Mike join us, Cap. We're on the fourth block from Beverly's house."

"We'll pick them up and be right there. Beverly is insisting on coming."

Roy started to say something to discourage that, but then he thought of how Joanne would be if it was Kim and Johnny in this situation instead of Tina and Chet.

"We won't do anything until you guys get here then. Out."

Turning back toward Johnny, Roy stopped as he noted Johnny's stiff body language.

"Johnny? What's wrong?"

"Roy - I think you need to see this."

There was a undertone to the younger paramedic's voice that had Roy hurrying over. There, just off the sidewalk, was the brass from a fired bullet. It was too new looking to have been there very long. Roy automatically reached a hand toward it, but Johnny stopped him.

"Let it stay where it is, Roy. The police might need to see it. Are the others coming?"

Nodding a little numbly, Roy's eyes remain fixed on the ominous piece of metal.

"Yeah - should be here any minute."

"Good."

Falling into silence, the two paramedics tried to keep their thoughts positive, but the shiny brass seemed to mock their efforts as they waited for their crew mates.


	4. Found

The others arrived where Roy and Johnny were waiting before Johnny even got a chance to begin pacing. As Roy pulled Cap to the side to tell him about the bullet casing, Johnny knelt down to take a better look at the yard they were in front of.

Beverly was watching him until she spotted the broom her daughter had been carrying with her. Before she even thought of controlling her reaction, she reached for it and yelled her daughter's name.

The sound of her mother's voice caught the attention of a very scared, very cold girl and Tina scrambled out from under the house, crying for her mother.

As soon as she heard her daughter, Beverly was running to meet her and she grabbed Tina up into her arms as all the men turned to watch as Beverly held her close. Roy noticed the shiver running through the young girl and grabbed the blanket from Johnny's Rover, thankful once again that his friend tended to keep several items in his vehicle in case of emergencies.

Beverly gratefully took the blanket and wrapped Tina in it.

"Oh sweetheart, you're chilled to the bone. What happened? Why did you stay here all night?"

Tina started crying then and between hiccups and sobbing. Roy had experience in translating upset young girl from the not so long ago days when Kim was that age. As he made out the gist of what she was saying, Roy turned to the other with a near panicked look in his eyes and called them over.

"Guys, we need to search around this house fast. Tina said Chet fell while getting them away from the bad men and that he wouldn't wake back up."

Johnny went back to where he'd been kneeling earlier and started into the long grass without further hesitation. He came upon Chet so suddenly that he almost stepped on him. Swallowing, he took in the blood staining the back of the light colored jacket before reaching out and touching Chet's chilled skin. Johnny searched for a pulse and breathed again when he felt it. It was weak, but present.

"I found him – it looks like he's been shot, Cap. We need a squad and an ambulance. He doesn't look good. Roy? Grab my first aid kit from the Rover. Man, I wish we had the squad. Chet's blood pressure is probably way too low."

Captain Stanley had already shifted frequencies on his walkie-talkie and called for a squad to make sure that Tina was alright and put in a call to Vince at the sheriff's department. He moved to the side again to request an ambulance as Marco and Mike met Roy at Johnny's Rover. They wanted to help out any way that they could. Roy asked Mike to help him carry the things to where Chet was then asked Marco if he would guide Beverly over to the Rover to encourage her to sit down. Roy knew from experience how much of a dead weight a tired little girl could be.

The squad and Vince arrived on the scene at very nearly the same time, closely followed by the men that had been throwing around accusations of Chet being a pedophile. Much to Hank's disgust, the two were still trying to imply that Chet was in the wrong.

"Why the hell would he be taking a little girl down a street like this if he wasn't up to something?"

Beverly heard that and blew up at them.

"He was taking her down this street because it was the way to my mother's house - where he took Tina to visit her grandmother for me. Which you would have known if you'd actually bothered to listen to me in the first place. And if you'd paid attention then, maybe I would be sitting her with my daughter half frozen and my friend half-dead from being outside all night."

Hank turned to Vince, who was not happy with the pair. That were the same two that had upset Johnny so badly when Roy had been kidnapped by implying that Roy had just left on his own - as if he had a habit of doing things like that in the middle of a response call*.

"Can someone put a muzzle on that pair? They upset Chet's mother and had his little sister crying."

"Sherri? How did they manage to get that tough street urchin to cry?"

"They threatened to have her and her brother removed from the Kelly home."

Having been one of the ones to help get the two kids placed in Mrs. Kelly's home, Vince was nearly as upset as Hank.

"Speak to Sheriff Webb, Hank. Have Mrs. Kelly and Mrs. Payne do the same. Those guys have gotten way out of line. Did Johnny ever talk to you about them?"

It took Hank a moment to connect Mrs. Payne to Beverly, but then he shook his head.

"Johnny's had a problem with those two before?"

"Yeah. That's his story to tell, but tell him I suggest he tell Sheriff Webb about that incident as well. They went way too far harassing Mrs. Kelly like that."

At the mention of Mrs. Kelly, both men turned automatically to where Brice and Belliveau. the two paramedics that arrived in the squad, were tending to Chet with Roy and Johnny assisting. The serious looks on the faces of all four paramedics didn't bode well for the lineman. The only thing that seemed to brighten them up was the sound of the ambulance arriving. When Hank got his first good look at Chet as he was being lifted onto the ambulance gurney, the reason for the worried expressions became obvious. Brice climbed into the ambulance to ride in with Chet and after only the briefest of debates, Roy climbed in as well.

Belliveau and Johnny signaled when the ambulance back was secured, then headed over to take a look at Tina. Vance went over as well to talk to the girl - they had already met once before, so Tina treated him like an old friend. She was much calmer now that she'd seen that Chet was being taken care of. In her world, once someone came to help someone, everything would be alright. No-one there was about to dispute that to the young girl. The two detectives had left to follow the ambulance to Rampart, so they didn't have to worry about them upsetting Tina either.

The story emerged slowly emerged. It was a little jumbled through Tina's eyes. The bright light in front of them and the mean sounding man behind them that wanted Mister Chet to put her down and leave her. She knew the man said something else, but she was so scared she didn't hear what that was. She just remembered that Mister Chet had told her to hide and to not come out no matter what the two men said or did. Then he'd run with her, but he stumbled. He'd put her on her feet and she'd run and hidden like he'd said. Then, he fell. The mean guys yelled at each other, then they drove away, but she was too scared to come back out until Mister Chet said it was safe. But he never got back up.

Beverly hugged her little girl tighter. Consulting over the biophone, Doctor Early said that it sounded like Tina needed a warm bath, a hot meal and a soft bed - in that order. He also suggested that Beverly keep an eye on her for the next twenty-four hours, but expected that she would be fine after sleep. Privately he was afraid that the girl might have some nightmares, but there really wasn't much that could be done about that beyond comforting her afterward.

The detectives consulted with each other as they followed the ambulance.

"You have your tape recorder, Scott?"

"Always. Are you sure about this, Jack?"

"Sure I'm sure. He'll be a little dazed and won't have a clear enough head to make up a story. This is the kind of scum we want off the streets, right?"

"Right."

Detective Vesely settled back in his seat a bit.

"Well then, if we bend a rule here and there, it's for the public good. We just have to get enough time alone with this Kelly to get a confession."

* * *

*Author note : the two OC detectives made their first appearance in 'R is for Retribution'


	5. Rampart

Vince went by the home of Tina's grandmother when he left the scene where Chet and Tina had been found, wanting to get her statement to add to Beverly's and Tina's before taking it all back to Sheriff Webb. He thought about waiting until he had Chet's statement as well, but with the lineman's condition, Vince knew that Chet wouldn't be able to give a coherent statement until the next day at the earliest. Besides, he wanted to have a chat with the Sheriff over the way Vesely and Carmichael were becoming increasingly antagonistic, both toward other departments and civilians.

As expected, the statement from Beverly's mother matched Beverly's account regarding Chet agreeing to take Tina on the trick or treating route past the abandoned house so that Mrs. Mitchell could see her granddaughter on Halloween night. She was naturally upset and feeling guilty.

"It was a long walk for Tina's little legs and Mister Kelly was talking about carrying her on the way back. If only I had been able to take them back, none of this would have happened. Is he going to be alright?"

"I haven't heard any reports back on Mister Kelly yet, ma'am. But he's at Rampart and they have a fine staff of medical personnel there."

"If there's anything else I can do, please let me know. He's helped my daughter and granddaughter so much since my son-in-law was stationed overseas."

"I've known Chet Kelly for awhile, Mrs. Mitchell. He's a good man. If you think of anything else at all, please give me a call. Don't worry if it doesn't seem important, just anything that seemed out of place or out of the ordinary."

After handing her his card, Vince headed back to headquarters. It was time to give Sheriff Webb a heads-up on the two detectives.

* * *

At Rampart, Chet didn't stay in the ER for very long. After a quick evaluation, it was decided that, while it would have been preferable to wait for Chet's vitals to become more stable before they did surgery, the bullet had already been in him far longer than Doctor Brackett was comfortable with. Despite his misgivings, Doctor Brackett made the call that it was worth the risk to go ahead and take Chet in to remove the bullet and repair the damages it had caused.

When the detectives arrived, they were annoyed to find that the fireman was already being taken into surgery and out of their reach for the moment. After a bit of quiet cursing, they shrugged it off and headed upstairs, making sure to avoid the area where the other firemen might be waiting for word on their crewmate. They were heading to the administrative area of the hospital to see their main source of information - Sally, one of the medical transcription clerks at Rampart. Not only could she access patient records without drawing suspicion, she was dating Detective Vesely and didn't bother with trivial things like patient confidentiality if he needed information. And after he told her about the horrible things Kelly was suspected of, she was eager to do whatever she could to help them.

Of course, such a juicy tidbit of scandal about a fireman wasn't going to stop with her. Not that she was a gossip, no, not at all. But sharing a little bit of news with two of her nurse friends was a totally different matter. Besides, she could use the assistance of her friend that worked in the recovery area. Sally knew that Francine would be as disgusted as she was about what Kelly had been trying to get away with. He'd been caught with the girl so obviously he was guilty.

The tale grew like wildfire with the telling around the Recovery staff. Once Francine heard that Kelly was in surgery to repair the damage from a bullet wound, she assumed that the police were the ones that had shot him in the course of rescuing the girl from him. By the time Kelly was actually wheeled into Recovery, none of the staff wanted anything to do with him. He was given the absolute minimum attention that could be gotten by with and even though his IV bag was replaced when needed, the prescribed pain medications weren't added to the line. They even hustled him into a room much sooner than he should have been in his condition to get him out of their area. Despite instructions from him that Kelly needed to be re-evaluated before being moved, Doctor Brackett wasn't paged and so was unaware of the premature move. However, Sally made sure that Carmichael and Vesely knew the second the room was assigned.

For his part, Chet was too groggy and in too much pain to really pay a lot of attention to what was going on around him as he was moved into the empty room. How exactly he'd gotten to the hospital was a big blank area, but all indications from previous stays pointed out to him that was exactly where he was at. The one thing that really puzzled him was that he was all alone. Also, there was something about his pain level that didn't seem right. Puzzling about things was really all Chet could manage though - his head wasn't clear enough to put rational thought into figuring out what exactly was off.

The door opening drew his attention and Chet glanced to it, expecting to see either a nurse or possibly a doctor. Instead, his confusion grew as neither of the two men entering looked or dressed like the hospital staff. There was something vaguely familiar about them though. As Chet's glassy eyes followed their movements, Carmicheal came further into the room as Vesely locked the door behind them. Chet winced as they turned on all of the room's lighting to full power before walking over to his bed, Carmichael going to his left side as Vesely stopped at his right, studying and fingering the tube leading from Chet's arm up to the IV bag.

"Kelly. Time for us to have a chat."

* * *

Johnny was still in the waiting area. Doctor Brackett had come in a couple of hours before to inform them that Chet's surgery had gone as well as could be expected, but due to complications, he'd be in Recovery longer than usual and then, depending on how well he was stabilized, either be moved to a regular room or ICU. Chances were higher that ICU was the option that Doctor Brackett would recommend. Pneumonia was a very real possibility for Chet and one that Doctor Brackett feared would be too much for Chet's already over-taxed system.

Getting up from the hard plastic chair, Johnny started to pace again. Being alone in the waiting area stank, but he had been the one to insist that the others go to their homes and get some rest while he took the first watch. After everything Chet had been through, Johnny was adamant that the first thing Chet needed to see once he was out of Recovery was a friendly face.

Another glance at the clock made him groan. Time was dragging. While he didn't want to make a total nuisance out of himself, Johnny reasoned that enough time had gone by since his last inquiry that the nurse shouldn't get too irritated about him checking to see if there was any word yet if Chet was going to be placed into ICU overnight. As he approached the desk, he noticed that the shift had changed and a different nurse that he didn't know was on duty now.

"Excuse me, but could you tell me how much longer Chester Kelly is expected to be in Recovery?"

The smile went off of the nurse's face like the sun disappearing behind a cloud. Likely a snow cloud from the chill tone in her voice when she spoke.

"Are you with the police?"

The question confused Johnny, but he shook his head.

"No. Chet and I -"

She interrupted him before he could continue.

"Are you his immediate family?"

"Well, no, but -"

"Then I need to ask you to leave the area, sir."

Johnny's mouth dropped open.

"Leave? Why?"

"If you continue to bother me, sir, I will call Security to escort you out of the building."

Having no idea what he could have said to make the nurse react the way that she was, Johnny just shot her another confused glance before heading out of the waiting area for Recovery. Maybe something bad had happened to Chet and she didn't want to say it in front of anyone that wasn't Chet's family. Now worried, Johnny set off to find Doctor Brackett. It was time to get a few answers.


	6. Unhappy Doctor

A worried John Gage was a determined John Gage. It didn't take him long at all to track down Doctor Brackett, who had fortunately just finished up with a patient in the Emergency area.

"Hey, doc - you have a minute that I could talk with you?"

Turning around, Doctor Brackett gave Johnny a tired smile. The smile faded a bit as he got a good look at Johnny. He'd known the young man long enough that he could tell from his facial expression that something had Johnny upset.

"Sure, John. I was just about to grab some coffee. Care to join me?"

The look of confusion that flitted across the young paramedic's face got the doctor's attention despite his very long shift. Why would offering a cup of coffee cause that look? Leading the way into the doctor's lounge, Doctor Brackett was pleased to see there was a pot of coffee that didn't look like it had been sitting there for hours. He handed Johnny one of the mugs before picking up his own and pouring a cup.

"I'd thought you guys would have gone home to get some rest while Kelly was stuck in Recovery."

"The other guys headed out to get some rest after I said I'd stick here and let them know if there was any news."

Taking a long sip of the revitalizing dark brew, Doctor Brackett wondered again why Johnny seemed agitated. Johnny seemed almost expectant, like he was waiting for him to say something more, but what? It shouldn't have been anything to do with Kelly - either he or Joe should have been contacted immediately if there had been an issue with him. Well, since Johnny wasn't volunteering information, he decided he'd just ask instead of continuing to wait.

"So - what is it you wanted to talk about? There isn't a problem, is there?"

"Well, to be honest, I was hoping that you could tell me. I asked the nurse at the Recovery area desk about Chet and not only wouldn't she tell me anything, she threatened to have me thrown out of the hospital if I didn't leave the Recovery waiting area immediately."

"Thrown out? Why? Did you make a pass at her?"

Johnny looked fully offended by that question.

"Heck no. I didn't even ask her what her name was."

"You didn't yell at her, did you?"

That was harder for Doctor Brackett to picture than flirting, but he did know that Johnny could occasionally get quite upset where his friends and co-workers were concerned.

"No, sir. I didn't even raise my voice. Heck, she hardly let me get anything out after she asked me if I was with the police."

Eyes narrowing at that, Doctor Brackett finished off his coffee quickly, taking his mug over to the sink and rinsing it out.

"It's about time to check on Kelly. Come along and we'll see what exactly is going on."

Johnny quickly rinsed out his own mug and followed Doctor Brackett to the Recovery area. The sour look that the nurse gave Johnny until she realized that he was with the ER head. Doctor Brackett held out his hand to her.

"Hand me the chart for Chester Kelly, please."

Her hesitation earned her the patented Brackett scowl. She'd hoped her shift at the desk would have been over before his arrival. Swallowing, she steadied her voice.

"Mister Kelly's chart isn't here, Doctor."

"Why not? Is Doctor Early with him?"

"No, his chart went with him to his floor."

Francine knew that was the wrong answer the second it was out of her mouth. She had heard of Doctor Brackett's temper, but never seen it. Not that many had actually seen him as livid as he was currently becoming.

"What part of my instructions that Kelly was not to be moved until I examined him was unclear? Who the hell signed off on his transfer?"

"The police were waiting to speak with him and you weren't available, so Doctor Bloom was asked to sign off on the transfer."

The name Bloom meant nothing to Johnny, so his first thought was that there was a new emergency room doctor that he hadn't met yet. Johnny was, quite frankly, more fixated on the fact that the police were asking for Chet. Then he gave a look over to Doctor Brackett and it appeared that the only reason the man was being quiet was that he was stunned, but he finally found his voice.

"Doctor Bloom - Doctor Arnold Bloom? The podiatrist? Since when could just any doctor sign off on a patient?"

"Uhm, Doc?"

As much as Johnny hated to interrupt Doctor Brackett mid-rant, he was worried about Chet. He was even more worried about the possibility that the police mentioned were the pair of detectives that seemed to have it in for Chet. He saw the doctor gaze swing his direction, took a deep breath and dove in.

"Sorry to break in, but is Chet still at risk for pneumonia with this move?"

Johnny picked exactly the right question to shift Doctor Brackett's focus.

"Probably more so. What room?"

The nurse quickly looked up the room number, not wanting to redirect the doctor's wrath on herself. She didn't really take a deep breath again until Doctor Brackett was storming off toward the elevators with Johnny following closely behind. As they passed out of her sight, Francine reached for her phone with a shaky hand and dialed an extension number.

"Sally? This is Francine. If your friend and his partner are with the patient, you'd better tell them to clear out fast. Doctor Brackett just left here and he's not in a good mood."

On the other end of the line, Sally rolled her eyes.

"So what else is new? Doctor Brackett is never in a good mood."

"Maybe not, but the mood he's in right now makes his normal mood look like jolly old Saint Nick."

Frowning, Sally hung up the phone. Francine was prone to overstatement, still? Deciding it might be better to be safe than sorry, Sally picked up the phone and dialed the extention to the room Kelly was in. To her dismay, the line was busy. Hanging it back up, she gave a small sigh before turning her mind back to her work. Oh well, Jack could probably smooth over of any problems with Doctor Brackett.


	7. Another Attack

Vince settled down at his desk. Pulling out his notes, he fed paper into his typewriter and got started on his daily paperwork. He was in the middle of writing up his report on Chet when Sheriff Webb called for him.

"Have a seat. We just received a report of another incident last night that sounds very similar to the Kelly case. It happened just outside of our jurisdiction."

The Sheriff glanced down at the notes he'd taken.

"A little over a half-hour after the time that you told me you believe the attack on Kelly took place, Arnold Gibson was walking his daughter, Janice, home from a Halloween party. At about the midpoint of the block they were on, they were attacked by a pair of men. That's according to the only witness, Margaret Hinds - she heard screeching tires and looked out of her window in time to see the attack. They forced the girl into a vehicle and left the man laying on the ground. Mister Gibson wasn't as lucky as Kelly - he's dead and his daughter is still missing."

The sheriff gave a frown as he looked at the papers in his hand.

"The witness gave us almost nothing to go by. Some of the street lamps were broken on that block, so she couldn't make out any details. I've promised Sheriff Cain our full cooperation, so the first thing we need is to get the hospital to release to us the bullet that was removed from Kelly. If it matches the one taken from Mister Gibson like I think it will, then Kelly's information about these men will be the best lead to finding and recovering Janice Gibson. I've already called Rampart and they'll be expecting you."

"I'll head over to Rampart and sign for it, sir."

"Good. I know that it's probably too soon after surgery to take an official statement, but if they'll let you speak with Kelly, anything at all that he can give you is more than we have now. The longer she's missing, the worse our chances are of getting her back home."

"How old is the girl, sir?"

"That's the other thing that looks like it connects the cases - she's close to the same age as Tina."

Vince winced. Time was even more crucial in this case. The men had already murdered, so they might feel they had nothing to lose by killing again.

"I'll head out right away. I'm sure Doctor Brackett will let me speak to him once he knows what's at stake. And sir? I think we need to get a protection detail assigned to the hospital as well. Since they killed Mister Gibson, that makes me wonder if they think that they killed Fireman Kelly as well. If that's the case and they find out that there's a living eye witness, they might try to finish what they started."

"That's a good idea. When you get there to talk to Kelly, I'd like you to remain and keep an eye on him until I can get a detail together to cover his room. In fact, I'll call and have one of the lab guys go to the hospital to pick up the bullet for processing so you won't have to leave him. If the head doctor has any problems, let me know and I'll come down and talk with him personally."

"Yes, sir."

Vince grabbed what he needed from his desk on the way past it to the door. After hearing about the murder, he didn't want to take any longer to get to the hospital than necessary.

* * *

Speaking of the head doctor, back at Rampart, Johnny was already having problems keeping pace with the furious man. As they turned into the hallway where Chet's room was, Doctor Brackett sped up even more. Johnny soon heard why - raised voices could be heard even from down the hall. At least two of them, neither of them Chet's. Not about to be outpaced by the doctor, Johnny caught up to Brackett just as he reached the door.

Brackett turned back to Johnny.

"Wait here. I've got to get the key from the nurse's station."

Giving a surprised look to the door, Johnny kept his voice low - though he doubted the men yelling on the other side had noticed anything.

"It's locked?"

"Yes - we do have some rooms that do."

Doctor Brackett didn't waste any further time explaining - he didn't even bother asking the on-duty nurse for the key, though he did flash a glare at here that effectively stopped any comment she might have been about to make. Johnny had remained by the door and watched as the doctor unlocked it, opening it and stepping in without any pause.

It might have been a close call as to whether Johnny or Doctor Brackett was angrier at the scene they walked in on. Chet was very obviously in distress. His oxygen mask was off and the detectives were on either side of him, leaning heavily on the hospital bed. Johnny couldn't make out what was being said to Chet, but the tones were threatening. Both detectives' heads jerked up when Doctor Brackett's voice rose to cut through their voices.

"What the hell do you think you're doing? Get away from my patient!"

Vesely turned and met Brackett scowl for scowl.

"You'll need to leave, doctor. His doctor has signed him off and we're about to take him downtown for questioning."

Doctor Brackett wasn't intimidated for a second. If anything, he became angrier.

"I am his doctor and I didn't sign off anything. You can leave this room now or I will have you escorted out."

"I don't think you realize who we are, doctor."

"I don't think you realize that I don't care who you are! This is my patient and you are currently interfering with his care!"

Johnny tried to ignore the arguing to make his way over to Chet, but Carmichael gave him a shove to push him back. But Johnny had already gotten a good look and was relieved to see Dixie come through the door. He immediately called over to her.

"Dixie! Chet's lips are blue-tinged!"

Those words brought out the Army nurse in Dixie.

"Clear the room! Take the fight outside, men. Johnny - you're with me."

It was all Johnny could do to keep from laughing. The three men responded to Dixie's 'I'm giving orders and I expect them to be obeyed immediately' tone without even registering what they were doing until they were at the door. Doctor Brackett turned to argue with Dixie, but she didn't say a word. She just forcefully pointed toward the door and then turned her attention immediately to Chet. Johnny had already grabbed the oxygen mask and was getting it back into place for Chet.

Noise could still be heard in the hall, but the volume in the room was greatly diminished as Dixie reached over to smooth some of Chet's hair back from his sweaty forehead. Her voice had gone back down to a soothing level.

"Just try to relax for me, Chet. Let me get a look at your chart. It must be time for your pain medications again."

Shortly after Dixie picked up the chart from the end of the bed, Johnny could practically hear the crackle in the air as he turned to see a furious Dixie looking over the chart.

"Dix?"

"Not only is Chet way past when he should have had his pain medication, another doctor signed off on stopping them."

"Bloom?"

That got Dixie's head up from the chart.

"How did you know that?"

"He's the one that authorized Chet being transferred from Recovery to here."

"We'll just see about that."

Dixie headed for the phone and paged Doctor Early to the room. When Vince arrived, he came in on the scene of Carmichael and Vesely arguing with Doctor Brackett in the hall as Doctor Early was working his way past the trio to get into the room. He headed right back to the nurse's station and borrowed the phone.

"Sheriff Webb? I think you'd better get here, sir. We have a situation with the detectives."


	8. Sheriff Webb Arrives

Doctor Early managed to make it into the room, closing the door firmly behind him. Dixie called out quickly before he got away for the door.

"Lock that, would you, Joe? I don't want those two idiots coming back in here."

"Sure thing, Dix - but what about Kel?"

Johnny piped up.

"Doctor Brackett's got the key to the room from the nurse's station."

With a nod, he locked it and then came over to the bedside to join the others.

"So why was I asked to sign out pain medication, Dix?"

Still steaming, Dixie just offered over Chet's chart to him. He quickly read over it and Johnny could tell exactly when Doctor Early reached the part where the other doctor had signed off on the transfer and stopping the pain medication. Without saying a word, Doctor Early pulled out his pen and made his own notation on the chart before heading over to check Chet himself.

"Just stay as relaxed as you can, Chet. We'll get you some relief as soon as I get a look at your current vitals. I might need to adjust the dosage that Kel had you down for, at least initially until we get the edge back off again."

As Early had expected, he ended up giving Chet a larger initial dose. Johnny breathed a little easier as the medication started to take effect and Chet began to relax slightly. To his surprise, he found Chet grabbing onto his arm.

"What is it, Chester B?"

"Tina - how bad was she hurt?"

"She wasn't hurt at all, pal. Just cold and scared - mostly scared for you. Kid's really fond of you, you know."

"She's okay, then? Honest?"

Then Johnny frowned.

"Wait a minute - did those two clowns tell you something happened to her?"

"They said I hurt her. I thought maybe I landed on her when I fell or dropped her on a rock or something. I don't remember much of anything after I started falling. Cripes - Bev must be steamed at me. I told her I'd take good care of Tina."

"She's not mad at you. Trust me, pal - she's worried about you. She told those guys that they were crazy for thinking you'd do anything that might hurt Tina."

In the hallway, the hospital security guard was at a loss. Doctor Brackett was saying to escort the police detectives out, but the police detectives were saying that Doctor Brackett was under arrest. Somehow, over all of the other voices, Vince managed to cut through enough to be heard.

"Everyone - please settle down and sit down. Sheriff Webb is on his way here and he will sort everything out."

Carmichael tried to go back into the room, cursing and banging on the door briefly before Vince intervened.

"Sheriff Webb doesn't want anyone else speaking with Fireman Kelly until he arrives, so sit down."

That was the situation Sheriff Webb came in on - Vesely and Carmichael on one side of the hallway in chairs glaring daggers at Doctor Brackett on the other side - who was glaring right back at them. The nurse at the station was also looking highly uncomfortable while the security guard kept a wary eye on everyone - still not sure which person he was supposed to side with, but hoping no-one got violent.

"Doctor Brackett, is there a room where we could have a word in private? Vince, see if they'll let you in to check on Kelly. Detectives? Either of you move out of those chairs, I'll have you in meter maid skirts so fast that you won't have time to shave your legs before hitting the streets. Are we clear?"

Somewhat mollified by the sheriff's approach and by the fact that he knew and trusted Vince, Doctor Brackett went to the room door first and used the key to unlock it. He'd seen Doctor Early making his way into the room earlier.

"Joe? Sending someone in."

Vince found four pairs of eyes focused on him - well, more like three because Chet seemed to be having a little trouble with the focus part.

"Sorry to intrude, but we have an urgent situation on our hands that we need Chet's help with. We have a missing little girl named Janice Gibson - she and her father were attacked shortly Chet and Tina were. Only this time, they took the little girl."

Doctor Early and Dixie exchanged a concerned glance, but Chet was already trying to shift to see Vince better. Johnny moved to help him.

"I didn't see much, Vince. But I'll tell you what I can remember. It's a time thing, right? Longer she's missing, less chance of finding her?"

"Afraid so, Chet. And anything you give us might lead us to something else. And that's more than we've got to go on right now."

Closing his eyes, Chet let his thoughts go back. He wasn't sure if the pain medication was making that harder or easier.

"Short stuff and I were headed home. I was giving her a piggy-back ride because she'd worn herself out. The street was pretty dark and suddenly these headlights popped on right in front of us and blinded me. It was pretty obvious that they'd been waiting because the guy's voice came from behind me. He wanted me to put Tina down and move away from her before giving them my wallet. If it had just been my wallet, I mea - no big deal, man. Nothing I couldn't replace. But I wasn't going to leave Tina. So I told her that she was going to need to hide and not come out no matter what those guys did or said."

"Those guys?"

"Well, I figured there had to have been one person that turned the headlights on in front of us. I heard two different voices."

"Did you hear any names?"

Chet's brow furrowed, then he brightened suddenly.

"Looney Tunes!"

Doctor Early gave Chet a look.

"I think I may have given you more medication than I meant to."

"No, no. The wolf and the sheepdog - those guys had the same names."

Johnny's expression brightened into understanding as well.

"Sam and Ralph?"

"That's it!"

Chuckling, Dixie reached over and adjusted Chet's blanket.

"I'm probably much happier not knowing what goes on inside a fire station between runs."

The lighter mood in the room seemed to help spur Chet's memory.

"Ralph was the one that seemed to be giving the orders. Sam's the one that shot me."

"You saw him?"

"No, but Ralph called him an idiot for doing it and said they needed to leave because someone was bound to have called the cops. But I guess nobody actually did, huh?"

"I'm afraid not, Chet."

"Say, that other little girl? How's her father?"

The hesitation told Johnny a lot, but the drugs had Chet's perception off enough that he didn't pick up on it himself.

"Just worry about yourself for now, Chet. If you remember anything else at all, give me a call or ask one of the guys to give me a call. Johnny - Doctor Early, Nurse McCall? Could I speak with you for a moment?"

Dixie took a moment to resettle Chet down and then joined the others on the far side of the room. Vince was very deliberately keeping his voice low.

"The men that attacked Chet and Tina killed Mister Gibson. We're concerned that if they find out that Chet's alive, they might come back for him. After I turn this information over to Sheriff Webb, I'll be taking up guard duty over Chet until the Sheriff sets up a detail to watch over him."

Johnny gave a concerned glance back to the bed. The drugs had finally eased Chet into sleep.

"You really think they'll come after Chet? He didn't really see anything."

"I know that, Johnny - but they don't know what Chet did or didn't notice and right now? He's the only real witness we have over the age of six."

That made up Johnny's mind for him. It was time to call the rest of the guys and fill them in on what was happening.


	9. Trouble on the Way

The two men weren't dressed to stand out and they didn't. As they walked down the sidewalk through the neighborhood talking to one another, they got the occasional glance, but nothing more.

"I don't get why we're walking around this area, Ralph."

"Because that guy you shot lived and he might have gotten a look at one of us. Sure, he might have already given a description to the police, but if he's not around to give a positive ID? Plenty of guys have our general looks, pal."

"Why do you figure that he's alive? It wasn't anything about it in the papers."

"And the other guy you shot that same night? Was he in the papers, Sam?"

"Sure he was. Ooooh. I get it. If the other guy had also died, he'd have been in the papers too."

"Exactly. Now, we're going around this area because we first saw the guy and that kid walking from this direction and when we saw them later, they were headed back this direction. That means they live this way. The girl had too much energy at first for them to have been walking very far. It's a nice day - good chance the kid will be outside playing. We spot the kid, we find out the guy's name. Once we got a name, we've got him. And when we do, don't screw it up."

"Hey, I was going to go make sure he was finished. You were the one that insisted that we leave immediately."

"Yeah, yeah. I was wrong that time, Sam - I admit it. Place was so quiet, your gun sounded like a cannon going off and it spooked me."

Sam chuckled at the memory as if they were merely talking a football game that they'd gone to together.

"It did echo something fierce, didn't it? Hey, look over there."

"What? All I see is an old lady puttering with her flowers."

"Trust me on this on, Ralph. If anything goes on in a neighborhood, the person that's going to know all about it is a retired old broad who has nothing better to do than keep track of what everyone else is doing."

"Well, since you're the old lady expert, why don't you show me how it's done?"

"Fine - I will."

Sam had what Ralph thought of as a flexible face that served him well in pulling off con jobs. The face that Sam was assuming now? Most preachers would have looked guilty in comparison as he walked over, staying carefully on the sidewalk.

"Excuse me, ma'am? Could you tell me what kind of flower that spectacular orange one is? My mother doesn't have anything like it in her flower beds."

Ralph had to hand it to Sam - the old woman beamed like he'd just said she had a beautiful grandchild.

"It's a Bloodflower, young man. Some people consider it a weed because it's a part of the milkweed family, but the blooms are lovely and the butterflies absolutely adore it."

"It certainly is striking. I'll have to tell her about it. Butterfly watching is a hobby of hers."

"Really? Does she live near here?"

"Oh no, ma'am - she lives over near San Francisco. I'm here trying to locate an old friend that lives in this area. We talked on the phone a couple of weeks ago, but I've managed to lose the piece of paper I wrote his address down on. Maybe you know him - a little on the short side, curly hair and moustache?"

"Oh yes - Chester. Such a nice boy. Helps me with my lawn on his days off. He lives right over there, but he's not out of the hospital yet, Mister -?"

"Smith. Alvin Smith, ma'am."

"I'm Mrs. Grant - pleased to meet you. Are you a fireman as well?"

Sam didn't even blink before nodding.

"Yes, ma'am. Chester and I started out at the same time. So he's in the hospital? Was it a fire?"

"Oh no. Believe it or not, someone actually shot him when he was taking darling little Tina around trick or treating."

"That's terrible. I should go visit him and see if I can cheer him up. Do you know what room he's in?"

"No, I'm afraid not. I've wanted to visit him, but I can't see well enough to drive any more and I don't like to take the bus."

"Say, if you really want to visit him, why don't you come with me? I'll be glad to drive you there and back. Anything to help cheer poor old Chester up."

The woman hesitated, looking over her flowers.

"I'd love to take the dear boy some flowers. Hospital rooms are so dreary. Are you sure it won't be too much trouble?"

"Oh, not at all. I'll go get our car and we'll be waiting on you."

"I won't be long."

Sam headed back over to Ralph with a grin.

"We have our ticket straight to the guy's room. Oh, by the way, I'm Alvin and we're both firemen."

"You're absolutely crazy, you know that?"

"Maybe so, Ralph, but if you can figure out a better way to get close to him, I'm all ears. And while you're thinking about that, let's go get the car before Mrs. Grant is ready."

Ralph did think about it all during the walk to the car and he finally agreed with Sam.

"Okay - I see the merit. Even if we don't do anything else, we'll have his name, a good look at him in decent light and we can probably find out from the old lady where exactly he lives."

"Oh, I've already gotten most of that information from her. Leave it to the old lady expert."


	10. Shot Fired

Within ten minutes, Sam and Ralph were on their way to Rampart with Mrs. Grant giving directions from the front passenger seat. When they arrived, Ralph watched in amazement as Sam helped the woman out of the car and offered her his arm as they walked to the entrance. Any watching would think it was the woman's son helping her along.

Neither of them said a word as Mrs. Grant asked at the desk for the room that Chester Kelly was assigned to, but they did exchange a discrete smile when they heard the room number. Before either of them could say or do anything else, the voice of another woman rang out.

"Alma? I didn't think you would be here so quickly."

Mrs. Grant turned and walked to the other woman.

"Amelia? What are you doing here?"

"Charlotte fell and . . . wait. If you aren't here about Charlotte, why are you here? You aren't hurt yourself, are you?"

Mrs. Grant gave Amelia's arm a pat.

"No, dear. I'm just here to try and cheer up one of my neighbors who got hurt."

Inspiration hit Sam like lightning and he motioned for Ralph to hang back as he stepped forward to speak.

"Mrs. Grant, why don't you go see your friend and cheer her up first? We'll go keep Chester company."

"That is so sweet of you boys. Tell Chester I'll be up in about a half hour or so."

As the two women walked off, Amelia began filling Mrs. Grant in on how Charlotte had broken her hip. Ralph move beside Sam and shook his head.

"You're definitely the old lady expert, pal. Shall we go see poor old Chester?"

"Yeah. Time to go put him out of his misery."

* * *

Vince glanced out and saw that Sheriff Webb had already left with Vesely and Carmichael, then laid his hand on Johnny's shoulder briefly.

"It's still pretty early - I doubt those guys will try anything in broad daylight. I'll be back in about an hour after I turn over the information to Sheriff Webb."

Johnny felt a touch on his other shoulder and glanced over to Doctor Early.

"I'm going to make sure Kel's blood pressure hasn't burst through the ceiling and fill him in on what's going on. Dix?"

Dixie glanced back over toward the bed Chet was sleeping in.

"I'll stay here with Johnny and Chet for a few more minutes, Joe."

Doctor Early gave a nod, passing her a syringe.

"If he shows further signs of discomfort, it will be safe to give him a little extra and we'll wean him down the pain medications from there. The important thing right now is that he get some rest after all this mess. Oh, and I'll make arrangements to have Kelly moved to a room where we can keep a closer eye on him until the threat of pneumonia is past. We'll look at moving him he finishes that unit of blood."

Giving a nod to Johnny, Doctor Early followed Vince as he left the room. As they moved down the hall together, a pair of men came off of the elevator, exchanging a quick look with each other at the sight of the deputy's uniform. Both of them breathed easier when Vince stepped into the elevator car they'd just vacated and the doors closed.

"You think he's already given a statement to the cops, Ralph?"

"Probably so, Sam - but funny thing? Your description and my description? They could match a lotta guys. If old Chester's not around to verify that we're actually the guys he saw? Nothing they can do. We take care of him, head back to where we have the girl stashed and head out for another town until things cool off here again. Maybe we'll work down in San Diego for a couple of months."

"That'd be nice. We haven't worked there in almost two years and we had pretty good luck there, as I recall."

"Come on, let's get this over with. No telling if that deputy might come back."

* * *

Johnny was filling Dixie in on what he knew when a moan from Chet drew their attention. Johnny headed straight to Chet's side with Dixie following until she heard the door opening behind her. Turning, she saw two men entering and frowned slightly.

"Can I help you gentlemen?"

Ralph smiled widely.

"Looking for Chester Kelly, ma'am."

Johnny glanced toward the two men, but didn't recognize either of them - not that he knew all of Chet's friends, of course. Then he was distracted by the feeling of Chet's hand clamping onto his arm. Hard. Looking down, he saw an expression in Chet's eyes that he couldn't quite decipher.

"Chet?"

At the wince from Chet, Johnny automatically pulled the privacy curtain by Chet's bed and lowered his voice.

"You in pain, buddy?"

Chet's eyes darted toward the curtain and motioned Johnny closer.

"John - get out quick. Call Vince, man."

"Vince will be back in about an hour. What's wrong? Did you remember something else?"

The privacy curtain was pulled open roughly. Startled, Johnny's breath caught when he saw that one of the men had taken hold of Dixie and had a gun on her. The other man had a smile on his face that seemed totally out of place with the gun in his hand that was pointed at Johnny.

"Actually, I believe what old Chester there was trying to tell you was that he recognized our voices. Shame that, Chester. We only wanted you out of the way and now you've gone and added two more folks into the equation that we have to figure out what to do with."

Johnny didn't know whether to be relieved or more worried as the focus of the gun shifted from being pointed toward him to Chet. Everything seemed to be frozen in time until the door swung open again as Doctor Brackett walked back in with Doctor Early following close behind. The two of them had been discussing something and didn't notice the tension in the room until they were actually inside. Neither of the guns were in his line of sight as Doctor Brackett scowled at the two unknown men.

"What the hell is going on in here? I don't know who you two are, but you -"

Dixie took full advantage of the unexpected distraction and stabbed Sam with the syringe that Doctor Early had left with her. Sam howled and dropped the gun. Seeing the weapon, Doctor Brackett immediately moved to wrest the man away from Dixie. Seeing the other man turning slightly to see what was happening, Johnny took the chance and tried to tackle him. It both did and didn't work - Ralph went down, but he reflexively pulled the trigger and the gun fired.

Doctor Early yelled down the hall for the nurse to call the police before rushing toward Chet's bed. Still working on keeping Ralph pinned, Johnny's eyes followed Doctor Early and then his breath caught in his chest when he saw Chet. The sheets covering the lineman were no longer white at the chest level, but soaked in blood.


	11. Sam & Ralph

Vince had no more than reached his squad car when the call came over his radio reporting shots fired at Rampart. He paused only long enough to let his dispatcher know that he was headed back inside before running back for the elevator, mentally cursing himself for underestimating how desperate the men they were after were. He didn't even consider that the gunshot might have been in another part of the hospital - he headed straight for the room Chet was in.

The scene Vince found when he arrived wasn't anything he expected. One of the gunmen was being held by Doctor Brackett and seemed to be trying not to doze off. Johnny was literally sitting on top of the second one, but Johnny really wasn't paying attention to the man underneath him. His gaze was fixed on the bed and when Vince looked over, the sight of the blood stopped him in his tracks.

Finding his voice, Vince shifted his eyes off of the blood and onto Doctor Early, whose back was facing him.

"Is Kelly . . .?"

"He'll be fine - assuming he'll finally get a chance to heal without anyone else intruding and disrupting his care."

Not that Johnny wasn't glad to here that, but he didn't see how anyone could be fine with all that blood.

"But - where did the bullet hit?"

Doctor Early glanced back over his shoulder and then back down at Chet before realizing what things must look like to Johnny.

"It looks bad, John, but the bullet missed Chet. It hit the unit of blood we were giving him - that's the reason for all the mess."

Taking a deep breath, Johnny closed his eyes briefly in relief until the man beneath him shifted again.

"Vince? Care to take over with this guy? He's the one that fired the shot."

Then Chet's voice spoke up from the other side of Doctor Early, his voice stronger than Johnny would have expected it to be.

"He's Ralph. That's the guy that was giving the orders."

Johnny nodded agreement.

"Chet recognized their voices and tried to warn us before they started anything."

Vince knelt down next to Johnny, grabbing one of Ralph's wrist as he pulled out his handcuffs.

"Ralph, huh? Where's the girl?"

Snorting, Ralph quickly showed he wasn't going to cooperate, giving Vince hard time for a couple of minutes until the handcuffs were fastened. Growling, he gave Vince a glare.

"You won't find her. Not where we have her."

Backup deputies were arriving by that time and Vince gladly passed Ralph over to them to take down to a squad while he took another set of handcuffs over to deal with Sam. Looking at the groggy man, Vince gave Dixie and Doctor Brackett a questioning glance. Dixie was unapologetic.

"When he grabbed me, I had a syringe of pain killer for Chet with me. I stabbed him with it."

Doctor Brackett made some noise Dixie took offense to and he grunted as her elbow hit his ribs.

"He was asking for it, Kel."

Trying to keep a straight face, Vince thought back over what Chet had told him. Sam - this must be Sam, the one that was being ordered around. Sam had a woe begotten look about him that made Vince wonder if maybe he could get the information out of him. He wasn't worried about getting anything that would be admissible in court. He just wanted to find Janice Gibson as quickly as possible.

Vince moved in front of the kidnapper.

"Sam - listen to me. You and Ralph aren't getting away with anything this time. The bullet they removed from Kelly and the bullet from Mister Gibson were a match. Only chance you have to plea for any kind of leniency from the judge is if you tell us where the girl is."

Sheriff Webb came to the doorway as Vince was speaking. For a minute, he didn't think Sam was going to respond, but then he gave a nod.

"Sure. It's all Ralph's fault that we've been caught any way. If he'd just given me two minutes to follow Kelly? Couple of bullets to his head and we wouldn't have had to come here. We'd already be in San Diego checking out the locals. Kid's a motel with one of Ralph's lady friends keeping an eye on her."

The matter of fact way that Sam had talked about killing Chet gave Johnny the shudders and he found himself shifting to put himself between the gunman and Chet's bedside before moving to Doctor Early's side. Sheriff Webb noticed Johnny's move and turned to Doctor Brackett.

"Doctor, is there an empty room nearby where we can take this man to finish talking to him? I'm sure we aren't helping your patient's recovery."

"Of course. Follow me. Dix, Joe - I'll be right back."

After the two lawmen and their prisoner left behind Doctor Brackett, Chet let out an audible sigh of relief and Dixie gave him a sympathetic pat.

"You guys never get into anything simple do you?"

"Guess not, but I guess things worked out for the best. I mean, if Beverly hadn't hurt her foot, she would have been the one walking with Tina down that street. Think the other kid will be okay?"

Toward the end of his question, Chet's voice began to slur slightly. Dixie smoothed back the curly hair from his brow, lowering her voice to encourage him back to sleep.

"They know where she is now, so I'm sure she'll be fine. Let's worry about you for now. Rest."

With a soft sigh, Chet relaxed and closed his eyes. All of Dixie's work was nearly undone as Mrs. Grant picked that time to come to the door, but Johnny recognized her and hurried over to head her off before she could disturb Chet.

"Hi, Mrs. Grant. Sorry, but they just gave Chet some medicine and he's sleeping."

Adjusting her glasses on her nose, Mrs. Grant took a long look at Johnny before smiling.

"Mister Gage, how nice to see you again. Would you make sure Chester gets these flowers?"

"OF course, ma'am. I know he'll be sorry he missed you."

"Tell him not to worry about that. We're neighbors, so I'll just catch up with him when he gets home. Did you happen to see where the two firemen went?"

Johnny automatically looked around, but he didn't know of any firemen there other than himself and Chet.

"Firemen? Do you know their names?"

A slight frown formed on her face.

"You know, I don't believe one of them ever did introduce himself, but the other one was Mister Smith. They were in the neighborhood looking for Chester. They said they used to work with him and wanted to visit. They're the ones that drove me here."

Seeing Vince coming into the hall, Johnny waved him over. He had a feeling that he knew how the two men had located Chet.

"Vince? This is Mrs. Grant, one of Chet's neighbors. Two men claiming to be firemen that used to work with Chet brought her here."

When they exchanged looks, Johnny could see that Vince was thinking the same thing that he was. Vince offered Mrs. Grant a hand and escorted her to a window where she could get a look at the men they had just arrested. The answer was plain before she spoke from the expression on her face once her vision focused.

As Vince led her back away from the window, he assured her that he would make sure she got back home after he got a statement from her. Listening, Johnny felt a shudder go through him, not only at the though that Mrs. Grant had been alone in a car with those two killers, but how close the two men had been to little Tina again. Noticing he was still feeling a little shaky, Johnny made his way to a phone. He needed to talk to Roy and calm down some more before calling Cap to fill him in on what all had happened.


	12. Calling in A Shift

Roy knew something was very wrong even before he fully realized it was Johnny on the phone. Johnny's nerves must have been stretched tighter than a drum because from the second he'd heard Roy's voice, the words started coming across the telephone line fast. So fast that, even with his years of experience with listening to Johnny, Roy couldn't make out much of what Johnny was saying. The words he could make out were not good though and were making his stomach knot : killers, gun, Dixie, blood, Chet - that was more than enough.

Roy raised his voice so that Johnny might have a chance of hearing him over his own talking.

"Johnny! I'm on my way. Take a deep breath and give Cap a call. Whatever's up, he needs to know."

Then, hearing that Johnny had stopped talking, Roy spoke softer and with more reassurance to his partner.

"I couldn't make out everything you said, but I'll be there soon."

It seemed to be the right thing to say because Johnny's voice was still shaky, but not as manic.

"Okay, Roy. I think they're going to move Chet soon, so call me when you get here and I'll give you the room number."

Joanne had heard when Roy had started practically shouting on the phone and was nearby as Roy hung up the phone. Roy gave her a brief fill-in on the situation - brief because he really didn't know much. Knowing Johnny, Joanne hurried into the kitchen and prepared a bag of sandwiches as Roy quickly got ready to leave. He gave her a curious look when she handed him the bag as he gave her a kiss.

"You know how Johnny is when he's upset. He forgets to eat and that won't help anything. Make sure he eats at least two of those sandwiches first thing."

Giving the bag a grateful look, he gave his wife another kiss before heading for the door.

Hearing Roy's steady voice had done what Johnny had needed it to do - calmed him down so that he could make more sense. Dialing Cap's number, his speech was still a little rushed, but he managed to get the main points out before hearing Cap say that he would contact Marco and Mike and that all of them would be headed to the hospital shortly. One thing was very evident to Cap - both Johnny and Chet needed the kind of support that only their teammates could provide. The calls were made and Captain Stanley left to pick up the two men.

After handing up the phone, Johnny took a moment to pout himself half a cup of coffee, adding sugar to it to help counteract the shock he was feeling the effects of. Drinking it down, he winced at the overly sweet taste, but it did the job and he felt much steadier as he made his way back to Chet's room. From the soft voices, Chet was again at least partially awake. Coming in, he saw that was because Dixie was starting to deal with the blood that seemed to be everywhere.

Without warning, Chet started snickering as Johnny was closing the door.

"First time I ever lost blood before it was even in me."

As she started pulling the sticky hospital gown off of Chet, Dixie gave Doctor Early and Johnny an amused look.

"I believe that's a sign that the pain medication has fully kicked back in."

Johnny had a relieved grin on his face as he came fully into the room.

"His jokes will be even worse than usual, but I'd rather have a goofy Chet than a hurting one."

"Aww, that's so sweet, Johnny. Isn't he sweet, Dixie?"

Holding back laughter with great difficulty, Dixie nodded as Johnny flushed red.

"That's our Johnny. A regular sweetie-pie."

Doctor Early looked up, biting back a comment when he saw how red Johnny already was. Instead, he gave Johnny a sympathetic smile.

"After we get him cleaned up, we'll be taking him back to ICU until we don't have to worry about pneumonia developing."

The frown that immediately formed on Johnny's face made Doctor Early pause. Johnny already knew Chet would need to be under observation, so he questioned the expression.

"Is something wrong, Johnny?"

"Yeah. Could one of you talk with that nurse on duty up there? She threatened to call Security and have me thrown out of the hospital if I didn't leave the waiting area after I asked about Chet."

Dixie's eyes narrowed.

"Do you remember her name?"

Scrunching his face slightly as he thought, Johnny remembered looking at her name tag before he left to find Doctor Brackett.

"Yeah - her tag said Francine Mullins."

Doctor Early picked the clipboard back up and tapped a finger on it thoughtfully.

"I feel like I missed a chapter in a book, John. Would you mind filling me in?"

Taking a deep breath, Johnny complied, telling about how he had asked Nurse Mullins about how long Chet was going to be in Recovery, her attitude switching from friendly to hostile almost immediately followed by the threat. He had left to find Doctor Brackett, who hadn't known that Chet had been moved either."

"And I guess you know most of the story from there. I followed Doctor Brackett here, heard those two detectives yelling at Chet and when Doctor Brackett tried to enter, the door was locked. He didn't bother trying to knock, just went back to the nurse's station and grabbed the keys."

The look that Doctor Early exchanged with Dixie told Johnny without needed words that the two of them were going to be having a conversation with at least two nurses. Mullins for transferring Chet in violation of Doctor Brackett's very explicit orders and Nurse Piper for not raising any alarms at the situation in Chet's room.

Over on the bed, the drugs had Chet's mood taking another pendulum swing and he called out.

"Johnny? You sure that Tina's okay?"

Moving over to the bed, Johnny ignored the remains of the drying blood and picked up Chet's hand.

"Remember the promise Roy and I made you?"

"Yeah. Of course I do."

"I saw her with my own two eyes. She was tired, cold and scared, but she didn't even need a Band-Aid."

Doctor Early came back over.

"That was the young girl I consulted over the phone about? I prescribed her a meal, a hot bath, and a nap."

"And Belliveau looked her over at the scene and you know how he is where kids are concerned."

After the reassurances sank in, a smile formed on Chet's face and the drugs finally pulled him back under. Doctor Early and Dixie quickly finished the remainder of the necessary clean-up before sending for a pair of orderlies to move Chet to his new room.

As she moved to the sink to scrub her hands, Dixie glanced back to Doctor Early.

"And once we make sure he's settled in, you and I are going to be having some words with a couple of nurses."

"I'm in full agreement with you, Dix."


	13. Tracking Down Problems

It took Roy several minutes to locate Johnny because he had gone into the courtyard area to get some fresh air while Chet was being moved. Dixie had requested that Johnny stay clear of the waiting room area and Nurse Mullins until she or Doctor Early came for him. The look of relief on Johnny's face told Roy quite a bit about how bad things must have gotten, but before Johnny could do more than open his mouth, Roy handed him the bag he was carrying.

"First - sit down on the bench over there and eat. Joanne's orders. I'll go grab you a coffee to go with the sandwiches."

Any protest was rendered moot when Johnny's stomach rumbled loudly after Roy said 'sandwiches'. Both men started laughing and Roy gave Johnny a pat on his shoulder before going to find coffee.

The first bite made Johnny realize how long it had been since he'd eaten anything and he mentally chastised himself. With his high metabolism, he needed to eat on a regular basis or he started getting headaches and generally feeling poorly. He had finished the first sandwich and was making good headway into the second when Roy returned with the coffee, which was gratefully accepted.

Roy sat nearby, waiting until Johnny had finished the second sandwich before asking any questions. Now that Johnny was calmer, the story came out slow enough for Roy to follow. Roy was as puzzled as Johnny was about what Nurse Mullins had done, grimaced at what the two detectives had done, and repressed a shudder as Johnny recounted how the armed men had entered Chet's room to kill him.

"I wish you had called me sooner, Junior. That was too much to deal with on your own."

"I would have, Roy, but everything happened so fast. It was like an avalanche starting that you couldn't see coming. I was really worried when that guy grabbed Dix, but I should have known that he'd regret who he picked as a hostage."

Roy chuckled at that. No doubt, their Dixie was a formidable woman. He had met a fair share of M*A*S*H* nurses while overseas and she was a stand out even among those ladies.

Even as Roy and Johnny were speaking about her, Dixie was in the operation recovery suite with Doctor Early questioning the younger nurses. As they spoke about what they were told - that Mister Kelly had been shot by the police while he was kidnapping a child - Dixie's temper started to heat up to the point that Doctor Early discreetly moved far enough away to called Doctor Brackett.

"Kel? You'd better come to the Recovery area before Dixie blows a gasket and a nurse or two goes missing."

Doctor Brackett's frown could be heard in his voice.

"What? You can't get Dixie to cool down yourself?"

"Oh, I might be able to - if I weren't currently inclined toward helping her out."

There was a pregnant pause before Doctor Brackett was able to respond.

"On my way, Joe."

In the meantime, Dixie had been following the chain of who heard the rumor from whom and wasn't a bit surprised to find that it all led back to Nurse Francine Mullins. It turned out that one of the nurses did have a tidbit to add that explained a lot and she was the one talking when Doctor Brackett came over with Doctor Early.

"But it wasn't rumors, Miss McCall. Francine got her information from Sally in the transcription office - and she was informed by the police."

Doctor Brackett had a sneaking suspicion as to which police officers started the whole mess, but wanted to make sure if he could.

"Who were the police officers?"

The young nurse jumped when Doctor Brackett spoke - she hadn't noticed him coming over. She cleared her throat and stammered a bit.

"Not - not officers, sir. Detectives. Sally and Detective Vesely are engaged. He and his partner were supposed to be coming to arrest Mister Kelly."

While the group of nurses were going to be having a refresher course about patient responsibilities, Doctor Brackett counted to ten to avoid blowing up at them. He was going to save the yelling for the ones that started the chain of events.

"Joe? Call for Sherriff Webb over the intercom. He's still in the building and he needs to hear this."

Dixie got on the phone herself and redistributed the on duty nurses to cover for the ones in the conference room with them. After Sherriff Webb heard the story the younger nurses had to tell, it was going to be time for Francine Mullins and Sally Piper to face the music.

Blissfully unaware of any of the drama was Chet himself. He was soundly asleep with Nurse Chapman, who had helped care for him when his leg had been broken by a landslide. While she wasn't sure why Nurse McCall had assigned her to watch Chet and take care of administering all of his medications personally, she wasn't about to question the Head Nurse.

After all, she could be doing far less pleasant tasks than sitting down watching the fireman sleep and making sure his medications were given on time and as prescribed. Besides - she had to admit that she found Chet to be rather cute.


	14. Some Resolutions

While Chet was getting some much needed rest, things began moving very quickly.

Unknown to Johnny, Cap had made a call to Chief McConakee and the Chief arrived at the hospital ready to take a piece out of anyone that got in his way. His temper settled considerably once he found that both Doctor Brackett and Sheriff Webb were already taking steps to discipline the ones behind the mistreatment of one of his men.

With Chief McConakee present, Sheriff Webb questioned the other members of Station 51 and got the story about the two detectives upsetting Chet's neighbor, Beverly Payne, by refusing to listen to her about her missing child. He also heard all about how the two detectives had threatened Chet's family - all the firemen knew Mrs. Kelly and her two adopted children. Vince was questioned next - not only about how he had overheard the detectives accusing Chet of being a pedophile but also in regards to the highly unprofessional behavior he had seen the two detectives exhibit before when Roy had been kidnapped. Between that and the statements Vince had already collected, Sheriff Webb suspected that he was seeing the tip of an iceberg, restricted both detectives to desk duty and confiscated their service weapons until he could order a full investigation by Internal Affairs. He also consulted with Doctor Brackett and the two men were banned from setting foot inside the hospital unless they were being admitted as patients.

On a much brighter note, one piece of very good news came in a call to the Sheriff. A woman named Gloria Coret had called the police hotline after seeing the picture of the little girl that she was watching over on the front page of the local newspaper. She was the lady friend that Sam had spoken of, but she had been told that the child was Ralph's. As soon as she had seen the news article, she wanted nothing more to do with either man and agreed to continue to stay with the child until officers could arrive to transport her to the hospital. While she appeared uninjured, Sheriff Webb decided it was best to err on the side of caution and have the doctors examine Janice Gibson before releasing her to her family.

Miss Coret also agreed to come into the station to answer some additional questions. Between her tone over the phone and her ready cooperation, the sheriff was convinced that the woman was either an excellent actress or had been kept unaware of her boyfriend's illegal activities. His gut was leaning heavily toward her being innocent, but he would, of course, check out her story.

Sam and Ralph viciously turned on one another, each blaming the other for the murder of Arnold Gibson. Sheriff Webb noted to Chief McConakee that, as free as the pair were with passing the blame, the fact that neither of them even considered blaming Chet was a solid indication that he was innocent - not that there had been any doubt of that for anyone but the two detectives.

Sheriff Webb was even able to get statements directly from Beverly and Tina arrived at the hospital to check on how Chet was. As Captain Stanley could have warned him from prior experience, Beverly was not shy in giving the sheriff her opinions on the two detectives and none of her comments were flattering.

Chet woke up slowly to the sound of Tina softly singing 'Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds' - which was coming out as Lucy's in disguise with diamonds. At the sound of Chet chuckling, Tina stopped singing and headed over to the bed under the watchful eyes of both her mother and Nurse Chapman. Chet was grinning from ear to ear.

"Hey, short stuff. You don't know how glad I am to see you. You okay?"

Nodding vigorously, Tina reached over and gently patted Chet's arm.

"Uh huh. I'm okay. You're the one that fell down."

Tina's eyes moved to Nurse Chapman.

"You fix Mister Chet?"

Smiling, Nurse Chapman nodded.

"Well, the doctors are the ones that fixed him. Mister Chet just needs some more rest before he can go back home."

Satisfied, Tina gave a nod like that settled everything and proceeded to assure Chet that she had saved some of her Halloween candy for him to help him feel better. A soft knock at the door heralded the arrival of Chet's mother along with Sherri and Jackie. Seeing Chet's family at the door, Beverly gave Tina a lift to allow her to kiss Chet's cheek before giving him a kiss herself.

"As soon as they let you come home, I'm making a welcome back dinner - you pick the menu."

"Anything you cook is always great, Beverly. How your husband manages to fit back into his uniform after he comes home on leave is a miracle."

Laughing, Beverly turned and greeted the rest of the Kellys before taking Tina's hand and leaving the room.

Having been prewarned by Roy and Johnny that Chet knew nothing about the threats the two detectives had made against their family, the three of them came in and made sure to avoid that topic, instead focusing on how Chet was feeling and the latest news about how Jackie and Sherri were doing in school. They stayed until Chet's next dose of medication pulled him back to sleep, then exited the room quietly. Sheriff Webb had left word that he would like to have a talk with them.

If Sheriff Webb thought Beverly had been free with her opinions, he was soon to discover that she had only been a warm-up for what was in store from Mrs. Kelly. Now that she was over being scared for her children and was assured that Chet was safe, she was furious.

Had he not been a basically humane man, Sheriff Webb would have been sorely tempted to shut the two detectives up in a room with Mrs. Kelly for an hour.


	15. Homecoming

There were plenty of people happy when Chet was finally ready to be discharged from Rampart - none as happy as Chet himself was.

"No offense, Dixie, but I'm really ready for some food that isn't served on a metal tray."

Laughing as she handed his chart over to Doctor Brackett, Dixie shook her head.

"No offense taken. After all, I'm not the one that cooks the meals around here. Besides, I've heard rumors that you have a home-cooked meal waiting on you."

A happy smile formed as Chet leaned forward sitting on the hospital bed so that Doctor Brackett could check how the exit wound had healed one last time.

"Yep. Bev has been taunting me with visions of her pot roast and deep-dish apple pie all week long. She said if that didn't encourage me to get better, I was past all hope."

Even Doctor Brackett gave a chuckle at that before patting Chet on the shoulder.

"Everything looks good. Remember that you aren't cleared for full duty yet and take it easy for the next week. We'll look at you again then and see if you're ready for a round of physical therapy to get you back in shape."

There was a tap at the door and all three turned to look. Beverly was there along with Roy - and Chet's mouth went slightly dry when he saw the beautiful redhead standing with them.

"Good morning! Is Chet ready?"

Dixie was barely containing her laughter at Chet's expression, but Doctor Brackett didn't seem to notice.

"I'm signing off on his release forms now."

Roy met Dixie's eyes and was obviously as amused as she was by Chet's staring. Beverly laughed and came into the room.

"Chet? I'd like you to meet my sister-in-law, Claire. She's just moved into the area and will be staying with me until she finds a place of her own."

Claire came over and offered her hand.

"I'm so pleased to meet you. I've heard so much about you from Bev and Tina."

A subtle nudge against the bed by Roy spurred Chet back to reality and he wiped his hand off on the bedsheet before taking the offered hand.

"Nice to meet you, Claire. Umm - welcome to the neighborhood."

Claire gave Chet a brilliant smile before rejoining Beverly as Dixie and Doctor Brackett exited the room, leaving Roy alone with Chet to help him get out of his hospital gown and into regular clothing.

What could have been an awkward drive back to Chet's neighborhood was instead filling with laughter as Claire regaled them on her far from smooth move from Boston to Los Angeles.

"I couldn't believe it when they told me that they couldn't find my luggage. Bev and Tina bought the set for me for Christmas and Tina had picked out the pattern. My luggage is hot pink and lime green leopard print. How could anyone not see that combination?"

Paying more attention to Claire than to his surroundings, the car stopped and Chet suddenly realized that not only were they home, but all the parking places along the street seemed to be packed and one of the cars he knew was his mother's.

Roy and Beverly escorted Chet to the back yard which was set up with several tables loaded with a variety of enticing smells foods. His Station 51 family were all there as well as his mother, step-siblings and most of his neighbors. Doctor Early was already there, talking to Johnny and Chet began to laugh as Doctor Brackett and Dixie showed up a few minutes later.

Tina was darting from person to person playing hostess until she saw Chet. She made a beeline for him and escorted him to a comfortable chair that had been set up for him. Tina gave him firm orders to stay in the chair befor darting back off to fetch him a glass of punch.

Roy made his way to Johnny's side and the two of them were approached in turn by Vince. He motioned them a little farther away from the festivities. Captain Stanley noticed and moved over to join them as well and Vince began speaking.

"I didn't want to say anything around Chet, but I thought you'd like to know that Vesely and Carmichael have both lost their detective status. Sheriff Webb asked me to inform you that Chet will be receiving a formal apology. Seems that Vesely has a history a bad interactions with the fire department from his first posting in San Diego. I wish his former supervisors had passed that warning along to Sheriff Webb before he called them up and asked."

Captain Stanley had a look on his face such as might have been caused by biting a lemon.

"Demoted or not, if I see either of those two clowns near any of my men again, tell Sheriff Webb to expect a call."

"I believe he's already expecting that to be the case, sir."

Hesitating for a moment, Captain Stanley went ahead and asked about the two men that had attacked Chet.

"Those guys - Sam and Ralph? Will Chet have to go to trial as a witness?"

Vince considered briefly, then shook his head.

"I doubt it. They're being brought up on murder and kidnapping charges. They probably won't even bother charging them with the assault on Chet unless they manage to get off somehow, I can't see that happening with the statements we've gotten. They were pretty eager to turn on each other once they knew they were caught."

All three firemen were relieved. One less thing for their station mate to have hanging over his head.

"Thanks, Vince. You've been a big help to all of us through this whole mess."

"My pleasure. I think I'm going to go see Mrs. Kelly and make sure Sherri and Jackie are feeling better now.

Nodding, Vince headed over to speak to Mrs. Kelly as Captain Stanley let out a long sigh. Both paramedics remained quiet for a few minutes before Roy ventured his opinion.

"We'll keep an eye out, Cap. At least it won't be too long before our crew is back together. Doctor Brackett said Chet's doing well. He should be back to full duty by Thanksgiving."

Looking over and seeing Chet having a close conversation with Claire, Johnny chuckled.

"If you ask me, Chet's already doing better than well."

That remark broke the sour mood that had been hanging over Captain Stanley and he joined in the laughter.

"This Thanksgiving, it looks like we all have a little extra to be thankful for. Come on, men, let's join the others."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Answers to a couple of questions I've been sent :
> 
> 1) Did the two nurses get fired? I will leave that question's answers up to the reader (personally, I would have canned the one engaged to the detective). However, they could very well have been giving a strict warning that they would be fired if there was another incident.
> 
> 2) What about the nurses' HIPAA violations? Well, there weren't any because HIPAA didn't originate until 1996 - over 15 years after Emergency left the air in 1979. As this story takes place before Johnny and Roy became Captains, it's pre 1979.


End file.
